share

Redox Signaling in Plants

The production of reactive oxygen intermediates is one of the first responses initiated by plants in response to pathogens. Grant and Loake address the issues of how reactive oxygen intermediates (ROIs) and nitric oxide (NO) contribute to the hypersensitive response that leads to cell death in the tissue surrounding the site of pathogen invasion and the role that these redox changes may play in establishing systemic acquired resistance. The authors do an admirable job of synthesizing what is known in plants with information from mammalian redox pathways. The questions that remain in terms of the mechanisms for the generation of ROIs and NO and the regulation of these pathways are also discussed.